Bubble Updates: March 9th, 2011

It was a good day for bubble teams across the country yesterday as Butler managed to knock off Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the Horizon League Championship. Butler was a likely at-large in most brackets while Milwaukee occupied the Horizon League automatic qualifier spot in most brackets. The Butler win means that the bubble actually grew a spot last night, as Milwaukee does not have the resume to qualify as an at large.

Other notable results include Oakland over Oral Roberts in the Summit League championship, a game which provides a slight boost to Michigan’s computer numbers. Princeton also beat Penn, which sets the stage for an Ivy League playoff on Saturday: Harvard vs. Princeton. Not only is that game a chance for Tommy Amaker to clinch an NCAA tournament berth, it’s a very important game for Michigan’s resume as well. Slowly but surely, the mid-major “bid stealing” conferences are wrapping up their tournaments. There are still more mid-major autobids to hand out but the damage has been minimal thus far. That means the major conference action is about to pick up. With 11 Big East bids all but locked up, today is the day to cheer against Big XII bubble teams. Things will truly start to heat up Thursday as there are at least seven games of utmost bubble importance.